“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary plans to build an enormous data center in Utah to defeat China and others in the AI race.

The multibillion-dollar ‘hyperscale’ project would be constructed on 40,000 acres in unincorporated Box Elder County, where every private landowner has agreed to the use of their land.

The project would also utilize an additional 1,200 acres that include a section of the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR), which is a Department of Defense site, and property owned by the Utah Trust Lands Administration.

“It shows the Chinese and the rest of the world we’re not messing around,” O’Leary said, according to Fox News.

“We’re going to get this done and move it forward and provide the computing power to our AI companies that defend the country,” he added.

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“The board that oversees the state’s Military Installation Development Authority, or MIDA, approved a series of resolutions Friday to move the multibillion-dollar project forward, agreeing to move fast and charge far lower taxes than usual to help O’Leary ‘lure the hyperscalers’ to Utah,” The Salt Lake Tribune wrote.

At full scale, the data center would consume more energy than the entire state of Utah.

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MIDA projects must include military land. In addition to UTTR, all of Hill Air Force Base, its Falcon Hill research park, and 27 Utah National Guard properties across the state will be “associated,” Morris explained, which gives MIDA board members “flexibility” on how to use the funds they will receive from the development.

Including the state trust land allows the state to also receive a share of the revenues, he said.

MIDA can offer tax incentives to developers so as they build in a project area, they can claim decades-long rebates of the property taxes assessed on the increased value they’re creating. MIDA also can set special tax levies to raise funds and can issue bonds.

Box Elder County commissioners, who said at a Wednesday meeting that they had first heard of the proposal a few weeks ago, had been scheduled to give the project the last approval it needs at a meeting late Friday. But late Friday afternoon, that meeting was rescheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.

Commissioner Tyler Vincent said Wednesday that when he first heard Morris make his pitch for the project, “I felt like I was drinking out of a fire hose, and trying to digest all of this so quickly.”

Vincent said Wednesday the commission had wanted to hear from residents about the proposed data center project before approving it, and to have the county’s lawyers read through the proposed agreement with MIDA. “We don’t want to just jump into something and down the road have it come back to bite us,” Vincent said.

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“Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority is trying to force through a data center in Box Elder County, practically on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, that will consume more electricity than the entire state combined. In the state senate, I proposed legislation to crack down on data centers and in Congress I’ll join with Bernie Sanders in supporting a moratorium on new data centers. In a time of skyrocketing energy prices and plummeting water levels, we cannot afford to spend trillions of dollars on industries like this,” Utah state Sen. Nate Blouin, a congressional candidate, wrote on X.

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“Its first phase is expected to require about 3 gigawatts of power — nearly matching Utah’s average statewide electricity use of roughly 4 gigawatts, he noted. At full buildout, Morris said, the campus would reach 9 gigawatts, more than double the state’s current total energy consumption,” The Salt Lake Tribune wrote.

According to FOX 13 News Utah, residents packed the Box Elder County commission meeting on Monday to express their concerns about the proposed data center.

FOX 13 News Utah shared further:

Many attendees were concerned that it was the first time they heard about the facility and felt as if it was being rushed towards final approval.

“I was on Facebook for a second this morning before the kids woke up, and saw it on the local page that they were voting on it today,” explained Brigham City resident Savannah Mutz.

Mutz rushed downtown with her kids during what should’ve been nap time.

“It matters, like, you know, we need jobs, but for us to be bringing things to Utah that are using resources that we don’t have… we don’t have the water!” she said.

Her worries and those of many others created tense moments during the meeting, before details of an interlocal agreement between the county and Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA) eventually emerged.

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“At its core, this project is about infrastructure that supports the military mission. Reliable energy and secure data systems are no longer optional. They are part of the foundation of how national defense operates today,” explained MIDA’s Hillary Venable.

Our partners at the Salt Lake Tribune report that the project’s head developer is O’Leary Digital, owned by Shark Tank personality Kevin O’Leary. They added that at a recent MIDA board meeting, the authority approved multiple tax breaks for the proposal.

At the commission meeting, Venable laid out the plan for the large data center to be constructed in a remote area of Hansen Valley, with plans of using on-site energy and a closed-loop water system. She claimed they have 100% consent from all private landowners in the area, and the rights to 3,000 acre-feet of on-site water, which is not from the Great Salt Lake.

O’Leary claimed the proposed data center would not create a strain on the local power grid, which is a significant hurdle for many projects.

“Most people don’t like data centers for good reason,” O’Leary said, according to Fox News.

“You tap it to the grid and all of a sudden the electrical costs for their church and the community and the residents all go up, and that’s why there’s been a lot of pushback. Not in this case,” he added.

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Instead, O’Leary explained, the Utah site will generate its own energy using a nearby natural gas pipeline, allowing it to operate independently while also potentially supplying excess power back to the grid.

“That’s good for the community, but for the country, we need to compete with China. We need AI computing power, and so where do you put that? You put that in data centers.”

O’Leary additionally suggested that the site could attract hyperscalers, or major tech companies, and potentially government partners.

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However, some remain skeptical that Utah has the necessary resources to power a data center of this magnitude without creating an immense strain on the local environment.

According to FOX 13 News Utah, MIDA claims the data center could bring more than $100 million in annual revenue to the county and thousands of permanent jobs after full buildout.

“Permanent jobs that will stay with the development, approximately 2,000,” Venable said, according to the outlet.

Ultimately, commissioners tabled a vote to allow additional time for review of all the information.

They scheduled another meeting next Monday.

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